


Take 2

by cognomen



Series: Cognomen's List of Things that Aren't Reptiles [19]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M, Gen, Pirate AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-25
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2019-04-08 01:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14093559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cognomen/pseuds/cognomen
Summary: February Ficlet Challenge Day 19. Pairing: Rose/DJ, Prompt: Pirate AURose didn’t start out thinking of herself as a pirate. Sure, she stole from whatever rich targets she could justify—and she sure could justify quite a few—but that was, well. That’s just how the galaxy works.





	Take 2

Rose didn’t start out thinking of herself as a pirate. Sure, she stole from whatever rich targets she could justify—and she sure could justify quite a few—but that was, well. That’s just how the galaxy works. 

Everybody was stealing something from somebody. The First Order stole lives away, which meant whatever she took was small time. Supplies, weapons, money—but it turns out that unless you’re stealing through the proper bureaucratic and military channels, you can get charged with— 

“Piracy?” she demands, when they sentence her. It seems like an outdated term, a romantic one from stories. “I’m not a-”

“Miss Tico,” the Justicar cuts off her protests. “Current galaxy law allows that if you are charged with theft in more than one system with a total value of greater than fifty thousand credits, you may be charged with piracy if you have proven yourself to be a repeat offender.”

“I don’t even have a  _ ship _ ,” she protests. “Don’t pirates have to have a pirate ship?”

“The law is clear,” the Justicar says, toneless. “You are to serve a term of restitutional corrective incarceration in the mines on Kessel for a term of four galactic standard years.”

She knows the stated term is just for the official record, no one ever leaves Kessel again.

“You may be seated.”

Humbled, she follows the instruction, sitting down on a bench next to a the unkempt man they’d sentenced before her. A slicer and con-artist accused of some form of fraud. 

“Say,” he mumbles, when the guard moves away. Rose isn’t immediately sure if he’s talking to her. “A pirate, huh? I c-could use one of them.”

He doesn’t look like he has much use for anything where he’s going.

There’s a metal plate on the front of his hat that says in what looks like hand-carved aurebesh, ‘Don’t Join’. He looks at her with his head angled down, but his eyes fixed on Rose for an answer.

Her immediate response is revulsion. He could use a bath, and not in the good ‘spent all day working’ way. There’s something a little unsettling too. Something in his aura or demeanor besides the blunt-sounding accent and stutter.

“No, thanks,” she says.

“Seems like you need at least one new option,” he says, voice a low purr to keep from attracting the attention of the guards. He has a lopsided smile that makes some kind of promise and sets butterflies going in her belly.

“I’m okay,” she insists, turning away.

Later, when Rose considers the chaos that follows, it only starts to make sense to her when she understands DJ a little better.

Who  _ else _ could orchestrate the escape of some very dangerous specimens from a private zoo and the subsequent chase and rampage into and through the courthouse. 

Rose almost misses the moment when he slips his manacle locks open with some kind of encoded Sabacc card. He looks up to catch her watching in disbelief, and offers a self-assured half smirk on the order of ‘I told you so’. 

“Okay!” Rose agrees hastily. “Just get me out of here!”

-

Later, on his ship (maybe she really _ is _ becoming a pirate) she finally breaks his strange expectant silence when she can’t take it anymore. 

“Why?” Rose demands.

“I f-figure someone gives you a label,” DJ—no name offered, just his motto-hat—says. “You ought to get a chance to wear it b-before they kill you for it.”

Simple A little enraging. These two concepts, Rose will come to learn, embody DJ’s whole life philosophy. 

And at the point, years later, where she truly enjoys that, she supposes she really  _ is _ a pirate.


End file.
